


MISSION: Redline

by WarioGirl



Series: DISGUSTANG [1]
Category: Cars (Pixar Movies)
Genre: (will add more tags later), Bodyguard, Canon Characters - Freeform, Cars, Comedy, Drama & Romance, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Gen, Humans, Humans co-existing with Living Machines, Inspired by Roleplay/Roleplay Adaptation, Jealousy, Living Machines, Multi, Old Concept, Original Characters - Freeform, Other, Possessive Behavior, Reunion, Spies & Secret Agents, XXXXXXXXXXXXXX, alternative universe, chrome - Freeform, humanxlivingmachine, protecting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:20:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28000800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WarioGirl/pseuds/WarioGirl
Summary: [Alternative Universe, where Humans co-existing with Living Machines]It had been three weeks since the Diesel Hunter disaster. Sallie Knight and TORQUE Harbinger are still recovering from the horrors the Ex-Police Car left behind. Meanwhile, eyes from higher authority decide to take action and assign Sallie with a bodyguard from their specialized unit, C.H.R.O.M.E.They send out Rod 'Torque' Redline, a top American agent who makes it his priority to make sure Sallie is safe. TORQUE Harbinger, an undercover Cop for F.L.A.G and best friend of Sallie Knight, is not impressed with this replacement and makes it his mission to remove Redline.However, Rod Redline's presence seems to bring in more questions and trauma to the human. He's a familiar hood, and Sallie doesn't like it...
Relationships: Rod "Torque" Redline/Original Female Character(s)
Series: DISGUSTANG [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2050839
Kudos: 1





	MISSION: Redline

#  ** MISSION: Redline **

#  ** Prelude **

** PAST **

It did not matter who heard her. She did not care.

Already, her throat was burning, her screams continuous as she grabbed the nearest thing, a vase, and hurled it against the wall in front of her, dragging down a picture-perfect portrait of her and _him_.

Blinded, she grabbed onto another object and flung it towards a mirror, destroying it easily into pieces. She watched it break, shattering into glittering shards, a thousand of her own reflection staring back at her, broken and hostile.

She couldn’t stop, her temper running wild and cruel, uncontrollable, letting her fury feed her body with a relentless surge of adrenaline that she had no power to, the sudden quench to destroy what was his, just as he had done to her. But it would never mirror the agony she was currently feeling, it will never replicate what he had done to her.

And so, at last, she had allowed it, all senses escaped her.

She wanted to hurt him, she wanted to break him…and despite this, she was not that kind of person. Even she knew it. So instead, she wanted to tear down their house, a little shack of their budding romance and growing life together. It did not matter anymore. It was all a façade, and there was no point in its existence anymore.

She had torn the wedding dress from the locker, untouched for their upcoming marriage, and shredded it, stained with the blood of her bleeding knuckles, screaming and throwing it around, as if it were the personification of her love, feeling bitter and betrayed by it, and now she hated it.

There was nothing left in her anymore, except the raw fury that seemed to have consumed her so violently, arresting her from the world. She was almost bounded to this poisonous, unlawful man, willing to give up her life to settle down with him. To have the normal life that always seemed to be so close for her to reach, but she was never able to grasp it. Just as she could taste it, it was gone yet again, snatched away from her eager fingers.

Maybe it didn’t exist for her in the first place…

Now, she wanted out. This was not her home. It was _his_. Everything around her was _his_. She was so stupid, fooled by her compassion for this man, that she did not realise what cell she had willingly flung herself into it. How he almost trapped her for eternity. Until now.

This was her hell, and she was going to break out of it.

But she was not done. Storming down the stairs, she turned to the front room, knowing there was a large collage, one she had worked hard on, of her and this so-called fiancé she wanted to live with forever, smiling back at her. Her smile genuine, forever optimistic yet naive, but his…it was suddenly fake, seeing through the mask of a disgusting and atrocious cheater.

_Bastard!_

She snatched the picture from above the fireplace, and swung herself sharply to the side, tossing the picture into the wall, knocking a collection of his CDs into a flood of discs, the collage now snapping into three large shards, landing on the carpet with a hideous dull thud, like a dead body.

Her hand grabbed the next nearest thing, ready to commence the violence to the belongings around her, but stalled to realise what it was…

The blood had been rushing into her skull too quickly, making her feel light-headed, and it was at that point she finally stalled, the anger fused through her pores into hot beads of sweat, shearing her flesh, her head pounding sickeningly, feeling dizzy.

The young mechanic stared down at the book in her hand, a familiar cover that she had lovingly made. Paper flowers and oriental washi paper framed the cover. It was the Scrapbook, one she had carried with her for the past five years. Bought during her days in University, and she had recorded highlights of her time in that University with memories, friends and fellow students, humans and living-machines, and she faintly recalled how easier life seemed back then, how kind it had been with her, a moment where she wanted to relive instead of the heartache she was feeling. And even after she started dating with him, she continued to make pages with this book, right up to where he had proposed to her, wanting to marry her, and she thought she was going to fill this book with glistening confetti, pressed flowers and white paper roses.

Slowly, she looked at the fireplace, the flames bringing shades to her sorrowful face, blades of shadows stabbing at her features.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,”

The human was slightly surprised to hear the voice of the Dodge Challenger, not hearing his beefy engine purring as he rolled in, but she should have known better. He was always near her, always beside her…right to her darkest hour.

Her gaze fell, her arm falling limp to her side, the book loosely hanging by her fingertips. She did not dare look at him in the eyes. She was a poignant disaster, and he would laugh at her for it. Though something told her that he was being serious.

She forced a smile, one of defeat and acid cynicism.

“What’s the point? It’s finished. We’re done,”

“You guys may be over…but _we’re_ not,”

Sallie Knight didn’t understand him.

On soft tyres, the Challenger rolled beside her. He had heard her screaming from outside. He knew this would happen, right when he showed her the truth. And had decided against the idea of interrupting her as she wreaked havoc inside the house. She will need it, and now this building which was once perfect and show-home like, was now in fragments and disarray, just like his human. At this point, he did not care about _him_. Sallie was his priority, and he wasn’t going to rid her wish. It was not his place.

He looked up at the human, disheartened to see her eyes red from crying, her hair scattered, face streaked with tears. She was destroyed, and that hurt him more.

“I don’t want this anymore, Rod,” Sallie murmured, her eyes fixed onto the fire. She was convincing herself. “This book has nothing but broken memories and shattered dreams,”

“But it has our friendship in it,” The black Challenger pointed out, lifting a tyre and gently rolling it down her arm, to her hand. “And that means more to me than anything.”

“I’ll just keep those pages,” The human replied, clearly unhappy with his persistence. It was true what he said, but this scrapbook held too many memories of that bastard. “But I’ll have to cut him out,”

“You don’t have to,” Rod insisted. “Look, you’re not even half-way through the book. That’ll be a waste, don’t you think?”

“The majority of this is a waste,” Sallie hissed through gritted teeth.

“This is _your_ life, Sallie,” Rod frowned. He didn’t like seeing her like this, how easily persuaded she was in giving up on what she tried to achieve. “I know you’re upset. You women tend to be more emotional about these things,”

“I was going to _marry_ him!” The human piped up, taking Rod’s usual comment a little too personally. “We were going to live together, and have a happy life. A life I fucking wanted, I just want a normal life, like every other fucker around me!” She clapped a hand over her eyes to stop the Challenger from seeing her cry more, but it was useless. Her voice gave it away, and the Challenger was not foolish.

“Stop it!” Rod snapped, slapping a tyre a little harshly at her hand, smacking the scrapbook out of her grasp, and it skidded on the floor towards the fireplace, but stopped a few inches away. For a time, the best friends stared at it. Then the muscle car watched as Sallie crumpled, seemingly realising how stupid and irrational she was being, and shook her head.

“I’m sorry…” She choked, her voice barely inaudible. But Rod understood her. He rolled towards her just as she dropped onto her knees, and pressed her face into her folded arms, resting on his hood.

“It’s okay,” Rod whispered, a little calmer now. “You just sometimes need to snap out of it,”

“It hurts Rod…it fucking hurts…”

“I know…”

“Please…make this pain stop. I feel as though my life has…just ended,”

“No, Sallie,” The Challenger purred, nuzzling his hood onto her wet face. “It’s just beginning. Admit it, since we’ve finished University, you were trapped here. You became a housewife, and you guys weren’t even married the last year.” He cocked an eyelid. “And frankly, I think you’d make a shit housewife,”

“Better than you, buttlord,” He felt a small shred of light in her voice, and he smiled softly at it. She looked up at him, fresh tears shimmering on her lashes. “I’d like to see you in a dress,”

“I’d rather be dead,” Chuckled the Challenger, and he watched as his human’s smile faltered and faded, her tearful gaze falling. “You don’t have to stop living because of him,”

“What do I do, though? He made me quit mechanics, and everything is in his name…” She paused, a sudden flood of realisation coming to her, and her eyes widen slightly. “Fucking bastard had control of everything…”

“Told you,”

Sallie lightly punched the Challenger’s tyre, and his blue eyes lit with amusement. But he was right. She admitted it. “I’ll tell you what to do,” Sallie looked at him from the end of his hood, attentive. He gazed back at her with the steel confidence she knew him for. “You pick yourself up. Stop being a sappy sack of shit, and dust yourself off. Otherwise you won’t get anything done,”

“Rod…I…” She rubbed her forehead, feeling the tenderness of her headache still present. “I don’t want to live here anymore,”

“Neither do I,” Rod agreed. “Alabama is okay, but it’s not my dream state,”

“Why did you come here then?”

“I wanted to be near you,” Rod said without missing a beat, his eyes tender. “I didn’t like him, you knew that. I was waiting to serve time from running him over if he ever laid a finger on you,”

The statement would easily shock anyone who didn’t knew Rod personally, but Sallie did. Her eyes welled with tears from the affection Rod had for her, the sense that someone was protecting her, the realisation that she was not truly alone here, came to her and she pressed her cheek against his hood, a tear rolling over the bridge of her nose and onto his sleek, black hood.

“God, I should have married you…”

“I won’t stop you. And I don’t blame you. I’m good-looking,”

“Egotistic pleb,”

“Oh, you love it baby,”

Again, a soft punched hit his tyre. They shared a smile for a time, then Sallie rubbed her wet lashes with the back of her hand.

“I thought you were just jealous of him. That’s why you didn’t like him,”

“I was jealous, and still am,”

A small smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth, rolling her eyes.

“Ohh, finally, Hot-Rod is admitting his flaws,”

“I don’t easily admit my flaws, but I would never lie,” He replied sincerely.

A pause.

“Why?”

“Hm?”

“Why were you jealous of him?”

“Because he was dating my best friend, Stupid.”

She chuckled lightly, shaking her head.

“All these guys fighting over me and I had to be engaged with the dick,” She murmured ironically. 

“You _nearly_ married him,” Rod pointed out.

“Of course, _you_ had to be the wedding crasher,”

“There isn’t a wedding, for what I believe,”

That comment lingered in the air between them for a time, and Sallie looked at her hand, seeing the silver engagement wedding band around her ring-finger. She had forgotten she had this on, from wearing it for a long period of time, it became part of her. Now, it was a part she wanted to destroy, to forget.

Rod watched calmly as she stood up, pulled the ring off her finger, and looked at it, contemplation in her eyes.

“Pawn it off,” Rod smirked. “You’ll get chump change, but you can give me it for gas.” He was joking, of course.

“No,” Sallie said softly, eyeing it up for the final time. “This ring is tainted, cursed with the betrayal of a man-child…no one should be forsaken to bear this thing,” She glanced at the fire, and back at the Challenger, who blinked at her slowly, a handsome smirk on his bumper as he directed a tyre at the waiting, fiery flames.

“Do it,” He agreed, seeing her eyes questioning him.

With a single nod, she threw the ring into the flames, and it vanished the instant it had been engulfed, and never seen again. The human and the Challenger watched it for a time, drinking up the satisfying moment of Sallie’s official marital status, the funeral of a broken marriage before it had even begun.

At last, Sallie sighed deeply, folding her arms once the moment passed.

“So…what do we do now?” She asked, genuinely lost. “I don’t want to be here anymore, and neither do you…” She turned to him. “Does this mean you’re…leaving?”

“Yes. But I ain’t leaving without you, Crumpet,” He tapped a companion tyre onto her. “We’re leaving this State. Together,”

“Where do we go?”

“Anywhere. _Everywhere_.” Rod’s eyes sparked in enthusiasm. “Just you, me, and the open road. We’ll travel around different states, meet different people and machines, have the fun and the adventure we weren’t allowed back in University.”

“But what if we need a place to live?”

“We’ll find somewhere.”

“Alright, but before we do anything stupid, I want to give Billings a call. Just to tell him what has been happening.” She frowned slightly. “He’s the only one that has really bothered with me since University. Everyone else has either been too busy with their own lives, or lost contact, or don’t care, or…currently fucking my ex-fiancé…” Her features darkened at the mention of that, before she shook her head, and the Challenger was pleased to see her not allowing herself to drown in her sorrow. “Arseholes, both of them…” She hissed, slowly calming down and her eyes found the scrapbook, sitting beside the fireplace, stuck in purgatory in whether it was going to be vanquished just like the engagement ring, or taken back.

She took a few paces, picking the scrapbook up, and felt the warmth of the cover against her fingers and palm, a sudden breath of new life unexpectedly onto it, a new purpose has arisen for it. She looked at Rod, who stared back at her. “What do you wanna do with this then?”

“What do _you_ want? If I were to choose, I’d say keep it with us. Let’s fill it with our own memories together. Let’s fill this thing with happiness, and perhaps, one day, you can rub it in that jackass’s face in how much happier you are without his sorry ass,”

The idea of using the scrapbook, in which Sallie had dedicated a lot of time to with decorating and writing the memories, for her and Rod seemed more appealing to her than destroying it. Suddenly filled with a new drive, she nodded, looking at the book.

“Yeah, I think that would be much better,” She whispered, running a finger down the cover and touching the white paper rose…

* * *

_…Where am I…where am I…where am I…where am I…where am I…where am I…_

The high-pitched whines of blood screeched in her ears persistently. It was hurting her.

But it was nothing compared to the white-hot agony that shot through her body. Everywhere. So painful it was too tender to move anything. Everything hurt. Everything was screaming at her. Her head, her senses, the world around her. It was a shrieking blur, and it aggrieved her more, her head becoming heavy.

_…Pain…pain…pain…pain…pain…pain…pain…pain…pain…_

Hot sticky substance, in what she knew was her blood, plastered against her face, hair and clothes. Then, came the gritty sensation of oil….

… _collision…. collision…collision…collision…collision…collision…_

She remembered the Police sirens. They came too late for them.

_…N-No! I-I cannot- I’m sick…where am I…._

_…what happened… …dizzy… ….so dizzy…_

_….Where am I… …fuck… …I can’t see…_

Forcing herself, she threw herself on her front, screaming to the drenched tarmac, the smoke too strong for her stunned senses to handle, her throat burning, lungs scorching. She tried to look up, her neck paralysed with excruciating torture, and she couldn’t do it.

_…Rod…I must get to Rod…I must get to Rod…I must get to Rod…_

The human could hear, barely, the hissing of his exhausted engine, the sounds of sirens muffled in the distance. The human clawed at the wet road, the rain seemingly too heavy and loud for her hearing, as she dragged herself across the floor, painfully slow. From the hazy, dizzying vision she could make out the black challenger, still, motionless. Smoke emitted severely through his crushed hood. He was panting, alive thankfully.

_Everything hurts! Oh god, Rod, everything hurts!_

_…Rod…I’m scared… …So scared…_

_…Help me… …I can’t see… …Too dizzy…_

She flung herself forward, receiving more discomfort, but refused to let it drag her down. A growing trail of blood followed in her wake.

“Rod…”

“Sal?” Came the small voice from the Challenger, wavering through her consciousness. “Thank fuck you’re alive…”

“Rod…” She finally reached up, propping herself against the Challenger, rocking, closing her eyes as unconsciousness tried to take her. “You’re safe…you’re safe,” She drawled, almost tiredly.

_…A crash…. …I remember a crash… …Bastard…came out of nowhere…_

_…. moved too quick… …Rod moved too quick…_

A crash. A fucking idiot t-boned her and Rod. All she knew was Rod screaming her name.

That was when she noticed something, running towards them, distorted figures of white vehicles and people dressed in painfully-bright attire.

“She’s alive! We’ve got a live one!” A voice bellowed, relieved. Footsteps were too loud. They gathered around them promptly, suffocating them.

_…Fuck off…_

_….Rod… I need to fix Rod…_

_…I wanna go home…_

“G-Get off…” The human babbled, but it was inaudible to the busying humans, who picked her up carefully and carried her to a stretcher nearby, which was already propped open for her. Once she was laid on it, her head lolled excruciatingly to one side, her vision slowly coming clearer, and she saw the disaster her best friend was in. The humans and forklifts surrounded the Challenger, but they were still able to see one another. She mouthed his name, her voice lost in the dam of her horror.

The Challenger was staring back at her, feebly, then his typical smirk appeared on his broken bumper, before he choked something to her. Three little words.

She barely heard them, but she _knew_ them…

_…I love you too…_

Her vision only worsened when hot tears stung, and that was when the Challenger slumped suddenly.

He was dead.

The human shot a hand out, as if doing so would help her get closer to him, desperately reaching for him.

Then she screamed, her fury and anguish ripped from her throat, her anguish and despair echoed in the darkened night…

**_“Rod! Don’t leave me! Don’t leave me in this fucking horrible world!”_ **


End file.
